Finished mural. Click on it to see a larger image.

On Friday, 8/17/07, Debbie, Arin, & Jayne came in to tweak and highlight the kids’ work. They used copper and gold metallic paint to bring out features of each tree and animal. Debbie was real handy with the outline brush. She used mainly a deep burgundy to outline, with black being used occasionally.

Just below are a few pictures of the final day of painting.

This is a view from outside the office.  It really brightens the entire hallway.  People stopped by all day long admiring the work as it progressed.

Here are a few more pictures of the kids and artist team painting their trees. Once Debbie instructed everyone on how to handle a brush, watch for drips, and Jayne helped with paint mixing, they were off to the races.

Each teen started painting on their own tree that they had painted in earlier training sessions. Some of the paint was less opaque than other colors and required a couple of coats. Eventually, each painter was sharing paint and helping each other finish up.

The kids’ jobs are done and on Friday, 8/17, Debbie, Jayne, and Arin will be applying the finishing touches, like outlining, metallic flourishes, and final cleanup.

Stay tuned for more pictures of the kids painting and the FINAL MURAL.

There probably will be a public reception celebrating this project. One of the kids said she’ll come if there’s pizza. Hear that “powers that be?”

Here is the entire group of fine, fine artists after a very successful morning of painting, talking, and laughing. Although, cleanup was not received with much enthusiasm!

More pictures will be coming of all the trees and unicorns, and birds, and suns, and on and on and on.

Day 2 on the wall.

Debbie, Jayne, & Arin met at the wall during the probation office’s lunch hour. They close up and turn off the lights during the noon hour, which is the perfect time to use an opaque projector to project the kids’ drawings onto the wall. The darker the room the better. Only problem was that the room wasn’t large enough because the projector had to be set back far enough to get the sketches to fit properly on the wall.

They managed to get the first third of the mural on the wall to get it started with the correct proportions. After that, it was sketched on by hand using the graphed mural sketch. They managed to do a pretty good job and in short order too. Black sharpie markers were used to do the drawings. From the photos it may be hard to see the lines, as they are rather fine from a distance.

Tomorrow, the five kids join the artists at 9 a.m. sharp to start painting. A quick lesson in paint mixing and brush handling will be first on the agenda. The kids and artists will paint until around noon and then more painting on Friday. Hopefully they’ll finish by then. Debbie, Jayne, and Arin will do final touch-ups and embellishments to top off the mural.

Again….stay tuned.

Arin and Jayne sketching out the mural.

Debbie concentrating on mural graph.

It’s hard to see, but their a couple of trees with a unicorn in there!

Red Tree with sun on top, and closeup of flower tree, bottom.

Once the kids finished their paintings Jayne downloaded their individual trees into Photoshop and using her Wacom tablet and pen tool, traced each tree and put into a scaled version of the mural wall. Once the trees were put in a good composition, we were good to go! We even did a comp with some color added to get the feel for the soon to be finished project.

The beige, yes beige, 10′ x 20′ wall was begging for color. And by George, Debbie, Arin, and Jayne took care of that!

Arin’s friend, Jenny, came by and helped apply paint and general good humor. Jayne and Arin started getting hungry. Skipped lunch. Dumb. So…by the end of the painting session we got a bit goofy. See the pictures as proof. On Thursday, we will be adding the kid’s enlarged drawings and they will be joining us on Friday to paint their trees. It will be one wonderful, colorful tree mural.

Stay tuned.

Two weeks ago, the Lee County Juvenile Probation Department (in Dixon, Illinois) along with artists Debbie Thompson, Arin Thompson, and Jayne Rose joined forces to create a mural to go on a 10′ H x 20′ long wall in the waiting room of the probation office. Five kids needing to complete their community service that have an aptitude for art. They were selected by Mary Huffman (head of the juvenile probation department) to work with 3 professional artists. Sounds better than picking up trash, doesn’t it?! Arin Thompson came of with the idea of using trees as the subject. Not just standard, realistic trees mind you,but trees of fantasy, spirit, growth, and hope. The kids were given some illustrations of trees to look at and then make their own. Jayne, Debbie, and Arin joined in the painting too. It was relaxing and seemed to loosen everyone up from the beginning quietness and reserved attitudes. By the second day of painting together, smiles came more easily. Here are some pictures of the process from beginning sketching and painting each teen’s tree design to completed mural. Stop by often to see the mural develop.

Tree with Red Bird after one day’s painting.

Tree with Red Bird on day 2.

Copper colored tree with Unicorn on the first day.

Copper tree after 2nd day of work.

Just got as far as the pencil sketch on the first day, but it is very strong.

This striped tree has a great start.

See…the Striped Tree finished up strong!

This red tree with a sun shows strong design sense.

On the second day, the color looks fabulous!

After the kids finished their second day of painting, the trio of teachers tackled painting the background of the mural wall.

The next post will show the finished mural background and what happens when artists get tired and hungry.  Goofiness ensues.